Mumbai man loses Rs 1.20 lakh to cyber fraud, was offered a job in London

The complainant is a freelance chef and had given his bio data on a popular job agency, the police said.

A 23-year-old Mumbai resident has lodged an FIR after being cheated by a cyber fraudster. The complainant, a chef by profession, was offered a job in the UK by the fraudster who, he said impersonated as a UK citizen.

The complaint was lodged by a 23-year-old who works as chef. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The fraudster took Rs 1.20 lakh as different charges to get the job, said the complainant.

According to police, the FIR has been registered on March 12 under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Information Technology Act. The complainant is a freelance chef and had given his bio data on a popular job agency, the police added.

According to the complaint registered by the man, he received an email purported to be sent by one Oliver Phelan in January. In the email, Phelan offered a job to the complainant to work as chef for a family in UK. He was offered a weekly salary of 1520 pounds, the complainant told the police.

He was then sent an agreement through email and asked to sign it and reply along with photocopies of passport. The complainant followed the instructions after which he got a phone call purported to be from UK.

After the complainant sent the money. the fraudster sent him another email. This time the complainant suspected something amiss and searched on the internet to find out that several others have been duped by the same person using the same email id.

He then approached the Dahisar police last month. “At first, the police were not registering my FIR but my cousin’s friend is a senior police officer. We put pressure and got the FIR registered. I know I will not get my money back. I also contacted the job agency which told me to lodge FIR. It’s a popular agency and my friends had recommended it,” the complainant said.